1

We Shine Study Circle

[_iy – 2018
TNPSC
elg;G epfo;Tfs;
(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
JANUARY - 02.01.2019

Main Office @

Weshine Study Circle

Chromepet, Chennai
Phone: 8939144344, 8939244344

Branch Office @

Weshine Study Circle

Plot No: 47/60, “AK” Block, 3rd Floor, West Wing, Gokul Arcarde,
7th Main Road, Anna Nagar No.2, Sardar Patel Road, Adyar
Chennai, Tamil Nadu – 600 040. Chennai, Tamil Nadu – 600 020.

https://weshineacademy.com

2
 INDEX
 NATIONAL NEWS

 INTERNATIONAL NEWS

 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

 ECONOMY

 APPOINTMENTS

 AWARDS

 SPORTS

 BOOKS

3
 NATIONAL NEWS

 World’s largest science meet „Indian Science Congress (ISC)-2019‟ is going to

be held from 3rd to 7th January 2019, in Jalandhar, Punjab.
o Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 106th edition of ISC-
2019, based on the theme „Future India: Science and Technology‟

 Railways will build the country‟s first vertical-lift bridge connecting

Rameswaram in Arabian Sea to mainland India that will allow ships and
steamers to pass through without any hinderance, replacing the existing 104-year-
old Pamban bridge.

 Railway minister Piyush Goel announced that the Honey Bee plan in Assam that
kept elephants away from the tracks will be expanded to other areas of the
country. He said that the initiative was started on experiment basis last year.

 A government appointed panel headed by IIT- Hyderabad chairman B V R

Mohan Reddy has suggested to the All India Council for Technical Education
(AICTE) to stop setting up new engineering colleges from 2020 and review the
creation of new capacity every two years after that.

 Andhra Pradesh got a separate high court which will temporarily function from
the Chief Minister’s camp office in Amravati, the new capital of the state till a
permanent building for the High Court is being set up at the „Justice City‟ in
Amaravati.
o Justice C Praveen Kumar, the senior-most judge among the judges
allotted to Andhra Pradesh, was appointed as acting Chief Justice of AP
High Court, that will have 15 other judges with effect from January 1,
2019.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

 The United states of America (USA) and Israel officially quit the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) amid

4
 concerns that the organization fosters anti-Israel bias.
o UNESCO was established in 1945 after the end of world war II to foster
peace and it is best known for its World Heritage programs which
designates cultural sites and aims to preserve traditions.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

 The American space agency NASA„s New Horizons spacecraft performed the
farthest flyby in history as it approached the Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule.
o Ultima is an object in the Kuiper belt which is a band of frozen material
that orbits the Sun more than 2 billion km (1.25bn miles) further out than
the Neptune; and 1.5 billion km beyond even the dwarf planet Pluto,
which New Horizons visited in 2015.

ECONOMY

 France introduced a new “GAFA tax” named after the large internet and
technology companies Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon to ensure the
global giants pay a fair share of taxes on their massive businesses in Europe.

APPOINTMENTS

 Justice Thottathil Bhaskaran Nair Radhakrishnan was sworn in as the Chief

Justice of the Telangana High Court.
o His oath was administered by Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Governor
E.S.L. Narasimhan.

 The Appointment Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of V

K Yadav as Railway Board chairman on the superannuation of Ashwani Lohani
on December 31. Before his posting to the coveted post, Yadav was serving as
General Manager, South Central Railway.

5
 AWARDS

 A Dharwad-based paediatrician, Dr. Rajan Deshpande, received the Shankar

Vaidya Shree Award at the 19th anniversary of the Dr. P.S. Shankar
Pratishtan in Kalaburagi, Karnataka.
o He was honoured for his exemplary work in children’s healthcare for 40
years.

SPORTS

 Serbia‟s Novak Djokovic defeated defending champion Kevin Anderson of South

Africa 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 to win the Mubadala World Tennis Championship for the
fourth time at Abu Dhabi International Tennis Centre, Abu Dhabi.

BOOKS

 The book titled “Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We
Came From” has been authored by journalist Tony Joseph, which unravels our
history using the results of genetics and other research.
o According to book, the Indian population is a result of four major
migrations, including that of the Aryans, into the country in prehistoric
times.